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May 2022 #14274 Page #126
The Last Word on Multi-Family
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as COVID-19, its aftermath, and raging inflation brought the multi-family truss business back to its roots? Bo Powers, co-owner of Panel Truss, sees fewer wraps and more garden style jobs further from cities. Kenny Shifflett, owner of Ace Carpentry, believes the plethora of these “cornfield” jobs may be a passing phase, as Gen Z (born 1996–2010) prefers inner city housing, or apartments near transit stations. How might this affect the truss business?
Joe Kannapell, P.E.
Garden apartment truss jobs, especially in prosperous areas, provide steady, repetitive work, especially in floor trusses. Jobsites are larger and easier to access and trucks are offloaded quicker. Even as buildings have gotten taller and more expansive, they’ve retained some similarity to one another. However, keeping apace with construction can overtask a facility and risk crowding out single family work. And that risk becomes even greater with the wraps and podiums. Large monolithic apartment buildings began springing up around the new Millennium as Millennials began moving into cities. To make their new abodes affordable, the old densities of 19–25 units per acre had to be doubled or even tripled, giving rise to the new typologies of wraps, donuts, and podiums. Parking areas have to be stacked, requiring concrete structures, that are concealed either behind or beneath the wood framed structure. Roof trusses often must be designed for the added loading resulting from rooftop recreational spaces or green areas that take the place of expensive ground level open spaces. The Wraparound or Wrapped buildings position their living units along the streetscape, blocking from view most of their concrete garages. Typically, these buildings are located in less-densely populated city edges, are usually topped out at 4 stories, and must follow provisions of the International Building Code (IBC) for Type V structures. Continued next page
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